The Walking Dead: Season 2 DVD/Blu-ray Offers Secrets From The Set

“The Walking Dead” doesn’t return to television for Season 3 until October 14, but in the meantime, fans looking for a zombie apocalypse survivors fix can dive into a host special features on the Season 2 DVD and Blu-ray, which drops on Tuesday.

Here’s a rundown of some of the most intriguing highlights from the release:

FEATURETTES

“All The Guts Inside”: Searching for Sophia helped propel much of the Season 2 drama, but there is one particular scene from the gang’s quest that is memorably jaw-dropping (and rivaled Tywin Lannister’s skinning of the deer in “Game of Thrones” Season 1 for total “Ewww!” factor) — Darryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) gutting a zombie. In this clip, the “Dr. Jekkyl of Gore,” Greg Nicotero, shows they actually used good ol’ ladies pantyhose to help craft the gruesome guts Darryl dug into in front of a nauseated Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). (More great Greg chatter is in the featurette “You Could Make A Killing.”)

“The Ink Is Alive”: “I really like screwing with the comic book readers, to a certain extent,” Executive Producer Robert Kirkman notes at the opening of this piece of bonus material, addressing his feelings about the changes from his comic to the small screen. RK explains that keeping Shane alive in Season 2 (he died sooner in the comic book story) basically helped pave the way for the exit of Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), who is still kicking in the print edition. Later, in the “You Could Make A Killing” featurette, RK admits that killing off the beloved Dale on the show was tougher than he expected. “The idea of essentially firing someone when you kill a character is very bizarre for me and it’s definitely an uncomfortable situation that I’m not quite used to,” he said.

DELETED SCENES

“What Lies Ahead”: The bleak opening sequence of Season 2 – foraging flesh hungry zombies on the loose in a city, and Rick crouched on a rooftop radioing Morgan – actually wasn’t the original plan for the highly-anticipated 90-minute return of the show. Instead, it was this sequence – Carl leaping to hug Shane who just jumped into the RV to escape a zombie attack, and Rick driving them all off to safety. According to showrunner and Executive Producer Glen Mazzara, who narrates the revealing deleted scenes section, this version didn’t set things up properly for potential new viewers. Subsequent scenes showing the gang “executing” zombies, followed by the group diving into potato chip packages and discussing their next move, “didn’t feel like they were desperate enough,” he said in the clip.

“Judge, Jury, Executioner”: Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) might be the most infuriating-to-watch character on the show, but that might not have been the case if this deleted scene where Carol (Melissa McBride) tells off Darryl for beating up Randall (Michael Zegen) had made the air. Turn on Mazzara’s commentary to hear him explain how they cut the scene to stop Darryl supporters from turning on poor Carol. Turn it off to see Carol rip Darryl a new one.

“The Walking Dead” Season 3 premieres October 14 at 9/8c on AMC.